Benchmark Research analyst Mike Hickey didn’t mince words in assessing Unity Software Inc.’s decision to yank its prior forecast as it reviews its business and deals with developer backlash to a since-walked-back controversial fee plan.
“The announced aggressive restructuring paints a dire picture,” Hickey wrote early Friday in the wake of Unity’s U, -3.15% third-quarter earnings. Macquarie’s Tim Nollen was similarly considered as he lowered his rating on Unity shares to neutral from outperform. Further, “these steps will better position the business for long-term revenue growth acceleration, better integration and synergies between the Create and Grow businesses, and healthy free-cash-flow generation given the sizable opportunity ahead for real-time interactive content creation and monetization across both gaming and non-gaming verticals,” Becker wrote as he stuck with his outperform call on the stock.